January 3, 2014

Colorado goes to pot.

Not exactly.

Quite literally, the state of Colorado is going to pot. It's not just that they have lost some manufacturing, they are de-gunning the state. That in conjunction with the new marijuana laws, has Colorado looking like it plans to gradually turn itself into a hippie utopia.

Firstly, the implications of the gun laws are more than just lost jobs but there is a direct implication (you might say unintended consequences) of the state decision.

Colorado responded to the mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., by passing new gun control measures last month. That's not sitting well with several gun-related businesses in the Centennial State, where four companies have announced plans to relocate all or some of their operations.

Erie-based Magpul Industries is the largest company packing its bags. The 200-employee business makes high-capacity magazines, which the Colorado Legislature voted to ban. In testimony before state lawmakers before the vote, Doug Smith, Magpul's chief operating officer, said the debate hurt the state's economy.

"Our plans to expand our operations in Colorado to a larger build-to-suit facility are currently on hold," he said. "If HB 1224 were to be enacted as law in the state, those plans for Colorado expansion would be canceled."

It's more than just not expanding. Magpul is moving out of the state moving the headquarters to Texas and the manufacturing to Wyoming.

The company says it is leaving because it disagrees with the new gun laws on philosophical grounds.

Then, there's the new marijuana laws. AllahPundit at Hot Air opines that there is one cogent argument against it that carries some water:

Yeah, booze is mainstream while marijuana is countercultural, and that carries all sorts of baggage. There are endless examples of successful, respectable people openly enjoying alcohol (starting with your parents, in all likelihood), but because it’s been verboten to openly enjoy weed, the stoner subculture dominates the popular imagination — even though the last three presidents all partook in their youth. The real innovation in what Colorado’s doing is giving pot a shot to go mainstream. Maybe it won’t work; maybe, after the first surge of curiosity, the bulk of the consumer base will indeed be dudes in sandals and sweatshirts made out of hemp. There’s a reason, though, that the man given the distinction of being the first legal buyer in the state is an Iraq War vet who suffers from PTSD. (Footage of his purchase is in the second clip below.) Advocates are desperate to normalize this by expunging the stoner association as much as possible.

What's next, free love? AllahPundit makes a good point - my visceral gut reaction of "No" is not something that doesn't in itself equate to an argument. Indeed there a lot of libertarian friends of mine who would say that laissez faire government has no place regulating drug consumption. But illicit drugs do have a societal impact that will not simply disappear because it suddenly becomes legal. Legalized alcohol consumption doesn't stop people from driving drunk. Therefore there are laws surrounding consumption if not banning it. The laws are not 100% effective though. People die from alcohol and people die from illegal drugs. The question is what does legalizing pot accomplish? Colorado will indeed be a test case for this experiment. As AllahPundit points out, this really is a test:

Believe it or not, Colorado is the first jurisdiction in the world to allow marijuana to be sold lawfully for recreational purposes. (The Dutch tolerate it but it’s still technically forbidden there.) As one pro-legalization activist put it to the Denver Post, “Today, there will be people around the country buying marijuana. But only in Colorado will they be buying it in stores like this one.”

If it remains a test until some tangible results and their implications can be seen, then like libertarians I have no qualms with the idea. I think the experiment will ultimately fail and be proven to be a bad idea. But the danger is that this is not the likely scenario, it will be more of a domino effect as other liberal states loosen their laws as well without waiting to see what the laws have done to society in Colorado, given the attempts at cultural mind shifting that are ever present in the liberal attack on morality.